Web-based Training Development Part 1

I haven't written too many multi-part posts, but this is sure to be a several day affair. There are many different aspects that I want to touch on, so today I'll just give you an overview. But heck, why bother telling a story from the beginning, it takes too long. Here is what I created:

Module 1 - Applicant Choice to Participate in FDPIR or SNAP (16:46)

Module 2 - Household Composition (21:33)

Module 3 - Application Processing, Interviews and Verification (30:01)

Module 4 - Financial and Non-financial Eligibility Criteria (34:11)

Module 5 - Eligibility Determinations and Assigning Certification Periods (55:04)

Module 6 - Recertification, Change Reporting and Notice of Adverse Action (31:11)

Module 7 - Claims Against Households (33:18)

Module 8 - Disqualifications (27:45)

Module 9 - Fair Hearings (37:26)

Post Test

It is very specific training devoted to helping people who operate the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). My intent is not to talk about the content or even the program, I didn't have anything to do with the content. Rather, my intent here is to walk through the process of developing this content into the 9 modules and post test you see here. The creation of detailed and specific training.

As an alumnus of my Agency's team devoted to employee development, I found that we had tons of good content if we wanted to train on hard skills and soft skills. If we need to prepare someone to be a Project Manager, or server administrator, or if we need to talk about Emotional Intelligence or the Myers-Briggs; hard and soft skills, we can buy those types of experiences off the shelf. The problem though is that once you fill up the tank on that type of content, you will find that what people are craving is the knowledge and training that will help them in performing their unique and specific job. That type of training is typically not something that we can buy off the shelf. However, I hope that through this series, that we can take some of the fog out of the process and put us into a position in which WBT development is more of a commodity business.

I will walk through the very front-end process from a year ago in which I met with people from the program to talk about what they wanted to do and conceptualize this product. I'll start with their outline, then the Statement of Objectives I developed as well as the cost estimate.

Then, for me, a lot of time went by and I didn't see anything until the contractor delivered the artifacts specifies in the work statement. But eventually I receives some PowerPoints, scripts and quizzes. I did a lot of experimentation to achieve the right balance between quality and file size, and I think the final product represents a reasonable trade-off. I recorded the audio, the video, the close captions and integrated them together.

I put together the Table of Contents for each video. I developed the quizzes at the end of each module and developed the feed-back as well as the mechanism to send in results. Finally, I added the HTML wrapper to create links among the modules, and there you have it.

So I don't know how many posts I'll put together on this project. I discovered a bunch of nuanced technical issues that I want to write down, for my own sake as much as yours. But I suspect that it will be more than 5. So stay tuned in the coming days and weeks while I try to take a little time each day to pull it apart and walk through the process.

Update: I'll post some links to the parts of this series:

Part 2 - The Work Statement

Part 3 - Audio Recording

Part 4 - Video Time

Part 5 - Creating the Project

Part 6 - Editing

Part 7 - Audio Enhancements

Part 8 - Close Captioning

Part 9 - Markers and TOC

Part 10 - Quiz Time

Part 11 - Rendering the Project

Part 12 - Finishing Touches